PPE on Vehicle Accidents

I was just wondering what peoples thoughts/department SOG's were on wearing bunker gear, ambulance crew/fire crew, on the scene of vehicle accidents. In my department's SOG's it states "Bunker gear is required for personal injury accidents", yet there are some who refuse to wear it when they respond on the squad(ambulance) because they have reflective vests or jackets. Me personally I wear my bunker gear and a refective vest no matter what truck I respond in.

How does time of day make a difference, if the car is upside down in the ditch or extrication is required the time of day isn't going to dictate whether or not you need bunker gear. As far as I have seen, the fender benders tend to be at 17:00 and the good wrecks tend to be at 4:00.

I don't mean to bust your balls, just wondering what the rationale is.

That being said, bunker gear to all MVC calls, regardless of injuries or damage.

On Structure Fires or Vehicle Fires or anytime Deemed necessary We wear Full bunker Gear and SCBA .. on MVC ( Motor Vehicle Crash or Collision),
We have Extrication Suits that are a totally diffrent Color than our turnout to prevent any sort of Mishaps where a Firefighter Might use his extrication suit to fight a structure fire. When in Our Extrication Suits We always have our Reflective Vests on.. in Bunker Gear We wear Our Traditional or Conventional Fire Helmets and while in Extrication Suits We have the Bullard Advents .. They are awesome if You ever have to crawl around inside a Smashed Vehicle and are also Pretty useful when Doing High angle Rope Rescue..

* On the Other hand You have More Fingers*
* Fly High like and Eagle? At least Weasles dont get sucked into Jet Engines*
* What exactly IS The speed of Dark..*

Our department's G/O requires turnouts to be worn on all wrecks as well. Simply because you want to be prepared for what may happen. The simplest car wreck call, when enroute can have poor information coming through dispatch. When you arrive on scene there may be an entirely different set of circumstances than what was originally reported. Meaning, You could have a call for a car off the median with all occupants out and arrive on scene to find all occupants trapped inside a car-b-que. You can always dump your gear when you get there if it ends up being a good intent call, but arriving ready to get dirty is always a safe practice. As with everything in this job, it can change from one second to the next.

Plan for the worst/Hope for the best.
The wearing of PPE would fit nicely into that mantra.
And I also feel that, if we plan for the unexpected, things like sudden ignition at an MVA won't bite you if you are properly attired.

it doesn't matter what call it is, you should wear all PPE (just like you learned) on all calls. Even a car wreck, something can somehow happen and you would need your full PPE such as a car fire that was called in as only a car wreck. Plus jacket and gloves would help against bloodborne pathogens. so its only my opinion so don't get all mad, but i seriously think that all calls= all PPE

January 2007 we received call for a single vehicle M.V.A. Before we even got out of the bay dispatch informed us that the vehicle was now fully involved. It was a good thing we were following our SOP's.

We carry reflective vests on the trucks for those that might be directing traffic but otherwise everyone is geared up. That being said we have recently bought rescue suits (meet NFPA specs) for our members to use on rescue calls. Its members choice which they want to wear but everyone is suited up in something. Normally the crews on Engine or Ladder are always in bunkers. At $2k for bunker gear and only $450 or so for jumpsuits we are tryingto get a little longer useful life out of our bunkergear. Our policy is only one that doesnt have to gearup before leaving the station is the driver, but his gear has to be on truck and must put it on at scene

On a MVA you should at a minimum have reflective on. Anyone who shows up with jeans and a shirt, should be sent packing without some PPE. Our Department we have our PPE we wear (or an extrication jump suit which has reflective all over it) and it is reccomended to wear a reflective vest if you overheat with the Turnout coat on. We also have reflective signs we place out ahead of the accident scene to warn drivers of whats going on